Do It Myself Blog – Glenda Watson Hyatt

Motivational Speaker

Accessibility 100: Tips for Improving Accessibility for People with Disabilities

Filed under: Accessibility 100,Living with a disability — by at 10:47 pm on Sunday, April 13, 2008

Inspired by Chris Brogan’s Social Media 100 and Becky McCray’s Small Biz 100 series – 100 useful and practical blog posts on their area of expertise, I am excited to announce that I will soon be launching Accessibility 100!

Accessibility 100 is a series of 100 easy-to-implement tips for improving accessibility for people with disabilities. To show that improving access for people with disabilities, this series will focus on the free and inexpensive tips that anyone can use. (The future Accessibility 200 series will provide tips that involve more effort and more cost.)

My plan is to launch Accessibility 100 during National Access Awareness Week in Canada, the first week of June – if I can wait that long!

Blog posts in the works include:

  • 10 Tips for Communicating with People with Disabilities
  • 5 Ways to Improve the Accessibility of Blogs
  • 9 Tips for Making Your Writing Accessible
  • Tips for Making Job Interviews Accessible
  • Tips for Making Job Postings Accessible
  • 3 Tips for Increasing Your Attitude’s Accessibility

Other ideas in the post hopper are:

  • How to make locations more accessible
  • How to use distance working to accommodate
  • Simple customer accommodations

To ensure I cover a wide range of topics, I’d love to hear from you. What ideas do you have for the Accessibility 100 series? What would you like to know how to make accessible? What questions do you have about accessibility? Feel free to leave your questions, ideas and comments. Let’s make this a group project!

If you enjoyed this post, consider buying me a chai tea latte. Thanks kindly.

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9 Comments »

Comment by AnneShirley Manion

April 14, 2008 @ 2:22 am

Glenda those ideas sound great and I will be looking forward to them.
Shirley Manion

Comment by Mary

April 14, 2008 @ 6:11 am

One topic you may consider is x things not to do for… those with mobility issues, those with communications issues, etc. For instance, when walking with someone in a wheelchair uphill, I would automatically drop behind and assist up the hill (if it wasn’t motored) – is this welcome? Or not? If someone is having difficulty communicating, should I attempt to finish their thought for them, or politely wait? [I know what I’ve been told, so I think I’m aware of the ‘right’ answer now, but I had to be told…] perhaps a list like this would also be helpful.

Comment by Jana

April 15, 2008 @ 10:51 am

GOOD IDEAS!!!!!

You could do a week of tips for website accessibility… maybe according to the type of disability (visual, auditory, motor skills, etc.) or just like 5 tips in general per day for that week?

Maybe you could do a day on how to make your yard accessible (not throwing crap on your sidewalk that wheelchairs won’t go over) or how to make your home accessible for a disabled guest?

Comment by Jana

April 15, 2008 @ 11:07 am

since i’m long-winded, I’m going to elaborate more on the comment I just made. 🙂 For example, if you were coming to visit me at my house (perhaps after a nice visit to Turkey Run State Park?) I’d be in a panic… how would i get you in my house? I have two seperate steps. Where on earth do you get a ramp or how the heck do you build one?

And then, once you got in my house, is there anything I’d need to do? And *dramatic pause* what if you had to pee?? My bathroom is going to be renovated this summer (I hope?) but until then the “leaning toilet of doom” is SO NOT ACCESSIBLE!

That makes me think of two other sets of topics…

Roadblocks to Accessibility (things to avoid)
and
Accessible Renovations… maybe for people who have disabled kiddos?

Comment by Becky McCray

April 23, 2008 @ 11:22 am

Glenda, I’m excited that you and I will be collaborating on accessibility in hiring and in serving customers!

How about also addressing other types of websites besides blogs?

And of course, conference and meeting accessibility! Many of us help put together all sorts of conferences.

Comment by Karen Putz / DeafMom

April 23, 2008 @ 7:01 pm

Jana,
If you have a house with only a step or two, you can find portable ramps at relatively low cost. The ramps fold up down the middle. You can view one at: http://www.inclusionsolutions.com

🙂

Comment by Sunday Oliver

June 19, 2008 @ 4:31 pm

Hi, I got to your site through Cricket Walker, and I’m very interested to see what you have to report about making web sites and ebusinesses more accessible. I bet a bunch of other people would be, too.

Your site interesting and well-organized; I passed it along to a friend of mine who works as an advocate.

Comment by Glenda

June 19, 2008 @ 5:38 pm

Welcome Sandy and thank you. Yes, I can add web sites and e-businesses to the list of Accessibility 100 topics. Do you have specific questions or concerns about making e-businesses accessible? In the meantime, 5 Ways to Increase the Accessibility of Blogs may be a starting point. These tips apply to websites too.

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